Perspective
Wandering Through Time & Space
by Arvind Pandey
All of us at some point cannot help wonder on the vastness of time and
space. As thoughts wander one wonders if we will ever crack all the
codes, decipher all the mysteries. Beginning with the mystery of
creation of life, creation of this planet we call Earth and what about
this Universe? All this seems too huge for our human mind. At least some
great scientists and some great philosophers have offered some insights,
some theories. I hope one day all that will be as comprehensible to an
average mind like mine.
One mystery that is becoming more comprehensible is the spread of human
species around this planet. Recently I read about the National
Geographic and IBM’s Genographic project. If you haven’t then it is
worth visiting this site
https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic. Another site for
understanding the peopling of the world is
http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/. Journey of mankind is an
interesting story. Our successes in understanding of the DNA have given
us some definitive results in this search that archaeology alone cannot
provide. But one important fact that now can be claimed a scientific one
and no more a philosophy is:
We are all sons and daughters of the same parent approximately 7,000
generations old.
This is profound. Religious leaders and philosophers have said that in
different ways: Universal brotherhood, Adam and Eve as universal parent,
Sons of one God etc. It is us that created the differences of
appearances, culture, religion, nationalities and the like.
No matter how powerful we feel as a species on this earth at this point
of time, we are really talking about a very, very small slice of time in
the evolution of life. Life came about some 500 million years ago and
human species some 180,000 years ago. We as species have seen a mere
0.04% of that time. In this period several species have been wiped out.
Most famous amongst them, the story of dinosaurs and how they were wiped
out some 65 million years ago. So it is no surprise that we as species
were close to extinction just 75,000 years ago. That tells us about the
power of nature. One such powerful force is the eruption of Volcanoes.
When we compare an average human life span (say 75 years), to the total
time humans have been on this earth, it is a mere 0.04%. We get to see
so little of the life on this planet that some times we can be excused
for drawing conclusions with so little knowledge and experience. Then
events like earthquake and tsunami on Dec 26, 2004 leaves us shocked and
shaken. But then that was very small in comparison to the power of the
eruption of Toba, 75,000 years ago. Here’s a site to provide some
details of the magnitude of that eruption
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/southeast_asia/indonesia/toba.html.
It resulted in six years of volcanic winter and extinction of several
species including near extinction of humans. Estimates range around 10
thousand human survivors only. We are the descendants of that surviving
group. The Global Village sounds so much more real in this context. We
are over 6 billion today, multiplied at least 600,000 times in about
3,000 generations. Nature has been very generous for some time now.
We are but one family that spread across the globe as we migrated in
search for better living conditions and procreated to make it harder to
be extinct.
While we wander thru time and space, it would be great if we all
reflected on some of the bits and pieces of knowledge that we have
discovered. It will be even a greater success if brought that reality in
our every day existence. For after we have spread out 510 million square
kilometers of Earth and 75,000 years appear an eternity for a human
mind, we have diluted what may have been a common knowledge then and an
essential fact for our survival that we are a family isolated and need
each other for our survival. Beyond survival, if we realize this simple
truth, at least we will not be as cruel, selfish and bigots as sometimes
we are.
Major catastrophe like the Toba eruption or the Yucatan asteroid impact
cannot be ruled out. However, if we join forces and use our knowledge
and energies not in fighting wars and hating one another, but, in
exploring the vast spaces, we may no longer be living in an isolated
island of this universe we call Earth.
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All of us at some point cannot help wonder on the vastness of time and
space. As thoughts wander one wonders if we will ever crack all the
codes, decipher all the mysteries. Beginning with the mystery of
creation of life, creation of this planet we call Earth and what about
this Universe? All this seems too huge for our human mind. At least some
great scientists and some great philosophers have offered some insights,
some theories. I hope one day all that will be as comprehensible to an
average mind like mine.
